Friday, July 19, 2013

Jumbo salad with all the things (kale, cabbage, green papaya and a peanut-chilli-soy dressing)

Naming this salad was hard. I thought about "Purple kale and cabbage salad with a spicy peanut butter dressing". I considered "Thai salad with a twist". In the end I just gave up. It has so many good things, it defies a simple name.

One of the other advantages of this salad is that it lends itself well to customisation. Green papaya isn't always an accessible ingredient, but grated / spiralized zucchini would step in as an alternative. More carrot would also work, or bean sprouts, or snow peas. This is really a salad concept rather than a strict salad recipe.

I would, however, recommend that you make the dressing in a similar manner to below. It is very good, and I say that as someone who is not a big fan of salad dressings. If you are a fan, you might even want to double the dressing quantity. I made it to season the salad mix, but not to coat it liberally. If you prefer a liberal coating...make a bit more.

I softened the kale and cabbage by allowing them to stand in hot water first. I prefer kale that way to fully raw, but if you feel the opposite, just omit the hot water step to give a raw dish.

This can be served as a stand alone salad, but it works particularly well topped with tofu (I loved it with satay tofu) or nuts.

Jumbo salad with all things is my favorite kind of salad. Peanut sauce is amazing - I don't think I've ever used nooch in it before, gotta try that. And papaya is an ingredient I tend not to use either, though I love green papaya salads! This sounds awesome!

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